Herbert Wilson

Professor Herbert Wilson (1929 —2008) was a physicist, who was one of the team who worked on the structure of DNA at King's College London, under the direction of Sir John Randall.

On a fellowship of the University of Wales, Herbert Wilson joined Maurice Wilkins at King's College London in September 1952. The work involved x-ray diffraction studies of DNA, nucleoproteins and cell nuclei. Prior to the double helix model, their studies showed that DNAs from different sources (including biologically active transforming principle) had essentially the same structure, and confirmed that the phosphate groups were on the outside of the molecule.

Three papers were published in Nature in April 1953 to announce a structure for DNA. Maurice Wilkins, Alec Stokes and Wilson published their paper in the same issue as the paper from Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling, and the paper by Francis Crick and James Watson. The 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was subsequently jointly awarded to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins.

Unfortunately in his autobiography "The Third Man of The Double Helix", Maurice Wilkins does not specifically credit Stokes and Wilson as co-authors of their paper in "Nature"; whether this was deliberate on his part or just down to rather poor sub-editing by OUP is not known.

Following the publication of the double helical structure in 1953, Wilson participated in the refinement of the DNA structure in Wilkins' group. In 1957 Professor Wilson was appointed Lecturer in Physics at Queen's College, Dundee, then at University of St Andrews, became a Senior Lecturer in 1964, and then Reader at the University of Dundee in 1973. In 1962 he was Visiting Research Associate at the Children's Cancer Research Foundation, Boston Mass. In 1983 he was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Stirling (now Emeritus). His research at Dundee and Stirling has involved X-ray crystallographic studies of nucleic acid components and their analogues, and structural studies of flexuous viruses. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the University of Wales, Bangor in 2005.

As a Welshman Herbert was honoured by The National Eisteddfod in Wales by being given the official white robe.

After suffering from terminal cancer, Wilson died on May 22, 2008. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and two grandchildren; his son predeceased him in 1996.

Books featuring Herbert Wilson

*Chomet, S. (Ed.), "D.N.A. Genesis of a Discovery", 1994, Newman- Hemisphere Press, London; NB a few copies are available from Newman-Hemisphere at 101 Swan Court, London SW3 5RY (phone: [phone]).
*Wilkins, Maurice, The Third Man of the Double Helix: The Autobiography of Maurice Wilkins ISBN 0-19-860665-6.
*Ridley, Matt; "Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code (Eminent Lives)" was first published in June 2006 in the USA and then in the UK September 2006, by HarperCollins Publishers; 192 pp, ISBN 0-06-082333-X. [This short book is in the publisher's "Eminent Lives" series.]
* Tait, Sylvia & James "A Quartet of Unlikely Discoveries" (Athena Press 2004) ISBN 184401343X

External links

* [http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/history/archives/dna/individuals/wilson King's College London link]
* [http://www.kcl-cdu.org.uk/dna_strand_kcl.jpgPhotos at 40th anniversary] (From left: Raymond Gosling, Herbert Wilson, Maurice Wilkins and Alec Stokes)
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
] .
* [http://www.packer34.freeserve.co.uk/selectedTATAwebsites.htm First press stories on D.N.A.]